1st Pin That Hooked You on Pinball

[Kemetman72]

A long time ago when I was very young I had some horse racing themed pinball. It made no sound but was fascinated by it. Then one Christmas my parents gave me Wildfyre a sort of led electronic pinball, but it wasn't till I was like 19 that I got bit for good. Addams Family, the game had a DMD I had never seen before and ut oozed charm and personality. I would get extremely good with scores topping 40 billion. It took months of practice but I loved every minute of it and it also introduced me to Rollerblade which I became quite good at. But if it wasn't for AF I wouldn't have given any pin a look. I also loved Phantom of the Opera.
So what pin hooked you initially and made you a pinball wizard?
Also one more thing we are missing 2 of the top ten pins from both pinside and ipdb. I know right now the Addams Family is not feasible, but what about LOTR? I would rather back a pin that's in the top ten or twenty and T2:JD is in neither. Thanks for any feedback, have a good day.

 

[brakel]

When I was a kid we had a pop up trailer and then later a pick-up camper. My parents were not into the camp ground "scene" they just liked to travel but had six kids so they needed to do it on the cheap. We usually stayed at KoA (Kampgrounds of America) affiliated sites. They usually had a community room with a pinball machine or a couple, piano, pool/ping pong table and later video games. We'd always play pinball in the evening or when it was raining during the day. The campgrounds were also usually a mile or two from a small town. We'd walk into town and look in 5 and Dime, general store or hardware store. Most every little town had some kind of little soda fountain or snack counter even if it was just in the corner of the feed store. About half the time it seemed we'd find a machine of some sort. Not usually in the best playing condition. I played so many different EM machines in those days I can't remember most of them. But there was one trip that my brother didn't go on that I found myself playing Williams Lucky Seven on free play during a storm that lasted almost all day. This shop had a soda fountain type counter and I got a Coke after playing a few games. I told the guy that it was nice that the machine was on free play. He told me that it was illegal in that county to charge for pinball without a gambling license. I spent all my pinball money that day on cokes and a hotdog! And I've never seen a Lucky Seven machine since.

 

[Kolchak357]

I played a lot of machines when I was young. Dolly Parton, Evel Knievel, Kiss, Capt Fantastic, Close Encounters were some that I liked to play back then. But the first pin that my friends and I went out of our way to play was Haunted House. All those flippers, the organ music, three levels, and the best backglass ever. So Haunted House for me. Evel Knievel is a close second though.

 

[norbert26]

outside of the time to time amusement park encounters growing up my first serious encounter(s) happened when i started college sept '82. the college had a game room filled with video games. one day they brought in 8 ball deluxe (limited edition) it had the half height back box. next to it there was a tic tac toe pin but it was 8 ball deluxe that got my attention. around sept '83 they took tic tac toe out and brought in centaur 2. that onr really did it. because i seen 8 ball deluxe first that will be the first one followed by centaur. centaur is coming shortly to TPA but sadly not 8 ball deluxe .

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Jokerz

 

[shogun00]

It was 22 years ago at the local arcade. They had five pinball machines and Rollergames caught my attention with its unique habitrails, lighting and catchy music. Popped in my token and I've been hooked on pinball ever since.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Alpine Club. My parents bought it back in the 80's when I was just a little whippersnapper.

 

[DanBradford]

Star Trek TNG was in a couple of pubs back in the early 90s when i was a student. i always chose to go to those pubs, and swore that one day i would have one or my very own. STTNG was my first pin, 3 years ago now

 

[Crawley]

Creature from the Black Lagoon on the computer in the 2001 Williams Pinball Classics release. I grew up when pinball was popular in the 80's and 90's but never got the draw of them - it didn't help that my games would typically end in a few minutes. Whereas arcade games I could typically play a long time for my moneys worth. It wasn't until I tried CFTBL on the PC that I realized that pinball tables have story to them and goals to accomplish. That pretty much changed how I looked at pinball games. But by then it was a bit too late as arcades and pinball were on the way out. So I'm thankful for playing any of these digital versions of real-life tables I missed out on.

 

[kimkom]

Gorgar when I was but a young lad

 

[Kolchak357]

Alpine Club. My parents bought it back in the 80's when I was just a little whippersnapper.

Jeff, did you see the cherry Joker Poker on eBay? I know it's one of your favorites. Expensive though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gottlieb-JO...561?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460ea8d209

Sorry to be off topic.

 

[Bass Mummy]

Pin*Bot. They had one in the lodge at my local park along with a couple arcade games, ping pong and a bumper pool table. They sold penny candy there, too. I had no idea how lucky I was.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Jeff, did you see the cherry Joker Poker on eBay? I know it's one of your favorites. Expensive though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gottlieb-JO...561?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460ea8d209

Sorry to be off topic.

Wow, now that is drool-worthy.

 

[DeeEff]

Volley at the 7-Eleven on my way home from school got me hooked. Setting up a brand new Centaur at the arcade (my second "real" job after the paper route) made sure I'd never go without pinball.

 

[Munky]

Pin-Bot was also what got me hooked when I was younger, was at a bowling alley my family went to every week.

 

[SilverBallFiend]

The first pin I recall playing was Big Shot, and now I have the add a ball version, Pro Pool in my collection.
Lots of nostalgia with this pin, and I got it on TPA and the real pin!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Whirlwind the first time (when I was little). Theatre of Magic the second time (in college). Twilight Zone the third time (a little over a year ago).

 

[Spike Forehand]

For me it was the mid-seventies when Gottlieb put out so many of their greatest EM machines. The one I distinctly remember playing at the Silverball Pinball Hall (my Mom hated that place!) was "Fast Draw".

Fortunately, I was able to obtain one off eBay and got it running for a while a couple of years back. Unfortunately, it's now back to shorting out so I need to make some time to troubleshoot it again, but playing Pinball Arcade and reading these forums have me thinking about it. .

Really, really would like to see PBA add one or two of those classic 1974-1977 EM Gottliebs like Fast Draw, Royal Flush, etc. IMO they are way better than Big Shot - the one that they do have.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

HOOK C'mon you knew that was coming.

 

[Fuseball]

Gorgar when I was but a young lad

I liked Gorgar. They had one at my local pool hall, but when it got replaced by a Black Knight was when the pinball bug bit hard. TZ was the DMD game that got me back into pinball in the '90s.